"I"m so tired ..." Haoran complained. Emma was busy with her laptop, fiddling with new programs that she just created. They were very busy with their school and "work" on weekdays and agreed to always spend quality time together on Sat.u.r.day so they could relax. However, today Emma brought her laptop because she couldn"t wait to finish her program.
"Why are you tired?" asked Emma. She put away her laptop and signaled Haoran to lay his head on her lap. Haoran"s face that was murky immediately beamed. He eagerly lay down on the sofa and put his head on Emma"s lap.
"I guess pretending is exhausting," Haoran said. "I have been doing my interns.h.i.+p in my father"s office for six months, and I am so tired of pretending to be nice to him. Yesterday afternoon, his new wife came to bring him lunch, and that b.i.t.c.h tried to act like a mother to me. I had to hold back not to slap her in the face."
Emma could only take a deep breath when she heard that. She understood that Haoran"s life was now quite difficult. Not only did he have to study hard at school because he was now in cla.s.s A, but for 3 days a week, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, he also had to do his interns.h.i.+p at his father"s office to start familiarizing himself with his family business.
On Wednesday and Friday, he had to attend his tutoring lessons with his friends; as usual, Emma still tutored them. Only on Sat.u.r.day he and Emma could relax a little. On Sunday, he had to work hard again to prepare all his school materials and his interns.h.i.+p a.s.signments.
He and Emma were also still in contact with the Moon Bounce community and did Moon Bounce activities from time to time, even though they already knew that the chance to contact AWA that way was quite small.
They still had to do it as an excuse for Haoran to ask to join s.p.a.ceLab"s projects in the future. He had told his father that he had a great interest in astronomy and proved it with various astronomy-related activities that he was now doing with Emma.
They have also calculated the slight possibility that AWA would be able to get their message if the AI has a system that covered the entire surface of the moon. They didn"t know that but felt it wouldn"t hurt to try.
While Emma herself was downing herself in her programs and tests and spent almost all her waking hours outside of school to hone her skills. She only stopped to eat and talk to Haoran on the phone, where they encouraged each other.
"How does your father treat you all this time?" asked Emma. "Does he look like he trusts you?"
Haoran nodded. "It looks like it. He started taking me to various important meetings with some of our group"s major projects. I already told him that I am very interested in s.p.a.ceLab initiatives, and he promised to take me to Ren Hanenberg"s presentation at s.p.a.ceLab in March. You know of s.p.a.ceLab"s plan to build a colony on Mars, right? Looks like they"re starting to get some breakthroughs. "
"Wow ... that"s great. Where is this presentation held?" asked Emma.
"Certainly at the s.p.a.ceLab headquarters in Switzerland."
"Ohh..." Emma was stunned to hear that. She really wanted to go too.
"Do you want to come along?" Haoran asked her suddenly. He had seen Emma"s expression, and he knew she was very interested in going.
"Me? Come along as what?" Emma asked in surprise. "You can ask your father to take you because you"re his son. I"m a n.o.body to him."
Haoran immediately rose from his seat. He looked at Emma with sparkles in his eyes as he suddenly became so excited. "You will certainly come as my girlfriend. But I will need your help to convince him."
"Convince your father? How?" Emma asked again. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him, trying to guess what Haoran wanted.
"You once said that you controlled Professor Ren Hanenberg"s mind to give you his access code and pa.s.sword to you. Why didn"t you try to control my father"s mind so he would take you to Switzerland with us?" Haoran squeezed Emma"s shoulders gently. "You are a telemancer. Why don"t we use your power to help us?"
Emma nodded." When I tried it on Professor Ren Hanenberg, it worked. There"s a possibility that I could control him easily because he was very tired at that time. The guy hadn"t slept in a few days. But we can always try it on your father."
"Yes, that"s what I meant ..." Haoran said again. "If we failed, it"s fine. We can make up the reasons why I wanted to invite you. After all, we"re not trying to make my father do anything drastic and suspicious."
"Like what, for example?"
"Well, if I asked you to control my father"s mind to divorce his wife, or make my father commit suicide ... that would be suspicious." Haoran shrugged. "We will only try to convince him to take you with us to Switzerland. If you failed to control his mind to agree to take you, no one would be suspicious."
"Hmm ... you"re right." Finally, Emma nodded. "When should we see your father?"
"Let"s do it in March, right before the trip," Haoran answered. "If we forced him to take you at the last minute, it will be more difficult for him to refuse. You do not need to worry about plane tickets and other things. We will go in my father"s private plane."
"Oh, okay."
Emma became very excited. She would be able to visit s.p.a.ceLab in a few months!
Once they were there, she hoped she could find opportunities to get into their system. n.o.body would suspect anything amiss if Emma used Ren Hanenberg"s access code right there in s.p.a.ceLab.